When data sgp is used by teachers, administrators, and parents to evaluate student progress, it can help them identify areas where students are succeeding or where they need to improve. SGPs are also a useful tool for educators in their planning processes as well as in their work with individual students and groups of students.
A student’s SGP is based on their performance relative to the performance of academic peers in the same grade who have similar starting points, e.g., the same initial assessment score. SGPs are produced on a 1 to 99 scale; a higher number indicates greater relative growth than a lower number. For example, if Simon’s SGP is 63, he has demonstrated more relative growth than 75 percent of his academic peers who started at the same point.
The process of generating SGPs takes up to two years of historical MCAS data. Students are compared to academic peers from across the state who have scored similarly on the same assessments in each of these two years. The data is normalized using a statistical technique known as quantile regression, placing the academic peers’ scores on a common normative scale and making it possible to determine each student’s SGP.
It is important to note that while SGPs are calculated based on trends in statewide performance data, there will be some years where a large percentage of students experience more or less growth than expected. Such a shift can occur in any year, but it is more likely to happen in years when the statewide cohort’s performance declines (e.g., in 2024 during the Covid-19 pandemic) than in other years.
SGPs are provided at the student, school, and district levels. Students can access their SGPs by visiting the Star growth report and selecting a prior or current school year in the “Timeframe” drop-down list. The SGPs for the previous and current school years are then displayed in the report.
In addition to the SGPs available in the Star growth report, educators and administrators can access a more recent version of a student’s SGP in a spreadsheet format called sgpData. This spreadsheet contains the same data as an SGP report, but in a more readily-useable format for further analysis and reporting. Using sgpData, or any other wide-format data for SGP analysis, is relatively straightforward; please consult the SGP Data Analysis Vignette for more details.
Note that sgpData is not available for all students because not all districts have submitted SGPs in the past two years. Students with no prior or current SGP will be listed as missing. In such cases, it is recommended that the teacher or parent ask the student’s principal for more information about why the SGP was not reported. A missing SGP does not necessarily indicate a lack of progress, but may be indicative of an unreported assessment or incomplete record of test results. A missing SGP is not a reason for a disciplinary action or a referral to a special education provider.